Case of Anti-semitic Teacher in England Stirs Nationwide Interest

July 9, 1962

LONDON (Jul. 8)

The case of Colin Jordan, a Coventry school teacher who is the leader of the British National Socialist movement, continued today to excite the interest of members of Parliament, most leading Sunday newspapers, and leaders of British Jewry. Jordan’s organization which held an anti-Semitic rally in Trafalgar Square last Sunday, has been roundly condemned by many members of Parliament, and the teacher has been suspended from his school post at Coventry, where the local education board is probing his activities.

Jordan has appealed to the National Union of Teachers to support his fight against dismissal by the Coventry school board. His ideology and his anti-Jewish propaganda were sharply attacked today in editorials in the leading Sunday newspapers, including the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Observer and Reynolds News.

Robert Henriques, chairman of the Anglo-Jewish Association, stated today that “anti-Senitism in Britain is not dead, but British Jews are sure it has lost its power.” He warned that “far more dangerous than the Nazi parties here are neo-Nazi and neo-fascist groups in some of the Common Market countries, which are far stronger than their counterparts here.” “Dare we hope,” he asked, “that Britain’s exports to a new Europe will include as a one-way trade her own attitude to racial and religious discrimination?”

In the House of Commons, this weekend, Laborite Richard Marsh asked Sir David Eccles, Minister of Education, whether the, Ministry planned to notify all local school boards that they watch against employing teachers who hold that the children of some races and religions are inferior to others. Sir David replied that the decision to hire or fire rests solely with the school boards.